Maharashtra Cyber Cell nabs Thop TV founder for streaming content illegally

The arrest was made following a complaint by Viacom 18 Media along with another broadcaster to the Maharashtra Cyber Cell

by exchange4media Staff
Published: Jul 14, 2021 4:55 PM | 2 min read

In a big victory for broadcasters against content piracy, the Maharashtra Cyber Cell has arrested the Hyderabad-based founder of Thop TV, which offers pirated broadcast and OTT content. Satish Venkateshwarlu, who was arrested from Hyderabad on 12th July, has been remanded to seven days of police custody by a Mumbai court.

The arrest was made following a complaint by Viacom 18 Media along with another broadcaster to the Maharashtra Cyber Cell. The broadcasters alleged that the “rogue, standalone” application had been relaying and transmitting their content without authorisation.

The case was registered under Sections 43, 66 and 66B of the Information Technology Act, 2000, Section 63 of the Copyright Act, and Section 420 and 34 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).

During the probe, the officials from the research and analysis team of Maharashtra Cyber found that the accused would steal content from other platforms using an inbuilt API (Application Programming Interface).

“Maharashtra Cyber cell has done a technical investigation into the FIR, and accordingly we have arrested one culprit from Hyderabad. The culprit had used Thop TV as a platform and as an app. He primarily provided free content on Telegram," said Sanjay Shintre, SP, Maharashtra Cyber.

Venkateshwarlu's Thop TV has built a strong user for the last two years since it has been in existence. The app has lakhs of viewers besides 5,000 paid subscribers. Thop TV charged a nominal subscription fee of Rs 35 from its users.